Passage of the bill would add cost-benefit analysis requirements for state agency rule adoption and readoption procedures resulting in additional costs to the state. As these additional costs vary by agency, and as the timing and scale of any litigation and associated attorney's fees, expenses, and court costs are unknown, the fiscal impact cannot be determined.
Among other provisions, the bill would require a state agency to prepare a certain cost-benefit analysis for each proposed rule and to publish on the agency's publicly accessible Internet website all materials used to prepare the analysis in a machine-readable format. The bill would repeal current law concerning the agency review of existing rules and instead establish a 12-year expiration date for each state agency rule unless the rule is readopted in accordance with the procedure laid out by the bill.
The bill would authorize a respondent subject to an enforcement action by a state agency for a rule violation to request a declaratory judgment from the court finding a rule invalid if the state agency lacks express statutory authority to adopt the rule on which the enforcement action is based and would require the court to award a respondent that prevails on such ground reasonable attorney's fees and court costs.
It is assumed that the additional cost-benefit analysis requirements for state agency rule adoption and readoption procedures would result in additional costs to the state. For example, the Secretary of State (SOS), Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), and Comptroller of Public Accounts (CPA) estimated needing significant additional staffing to implement the cost-benefit analyses and perform related functions that would be required by the bill. The SOS estimates needing an additional 3.0 FTEs and funding for modifications to the Texas Register system at a total cost of $1.4 million in fiscal year 2026 and $0.2 million per year thereafter. TDLR estimates needing an additional 3.0 FTEs at a total cost of $0.4 million per fiscal year. HHSC estimates needing an additional 44.5 FTEs at a total cost of $7.2 million in fiscal year 2026 and $6.8 million per year thereafter. TCEQ reports indeterminate additional staffing and resource needs. The CPA estimates needing an additional 6.0 FTEs at a total cost of $1.0 million per fiscal year.
It is assumed that agencies required to generate sufficient revenues to cover the cost of agency appropriations, like TDLR, self-directed semi-independent agencies, and agencies with programs that have appropriations limited to revenue collections would be required to increase fee-generated revenue to cover the costs associated with implementing the bill's provisions. Additionally, according to TCEQ, there could be revenue impacts if certain TCEQ rules are voided, which could disallow fees, fines, or violations. Finally, according to the CPA, as the timing and scale of any litigation and associated attorney's fees, expenses, and court costs are unknown, any associated revenue implications cannot be determined.
The fiscal implications of the bill to units of local government cannot be determined at this time.